Midnight Sun-a rewrite of The Blader, The Assassin, and The Hunter
by HunterCoralson
Summary: A boy and a girl find themselves trapped in a virtual world, forced to confront the darkness of their pasts. But the castle of Aincrad is far from the one they imagined. A rusted throne. A world without dawn. A god with no soul. "Say, Kirito." The girl's multicolored eyes calmly met mine. "What would you do if this world was the real one, and your real world was the virtual one?"
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hello guys and girls! Welcome to the rewrite of my story, The Blader, The Assassin, and The Hunter (aka BAH). Before the chapter, there are a few things I want to mention.

First off is a little bit on why I decided to rewrite this story. When I started writing BAH I had a pretty good idea of how the plot would go, but I was seriously lacking in my understanding of the characters. This created a lot of issues with personalities changing without any rhyme or reason to it, other than the fact that I myself didn't know what I was doing. Now I have a slightly clearer idea of what the characters are like, so hopefully it won't seem as disjointed as some of the events and character interactions in BAH.

Secondly, The majority of this chapter is a good bit darker and more serious than the overall tone of this fic will be. There will occasionally be other chapters with similar tones in the future, but those will be the minority. An important subplot of this fic is about Kazuto and Shino growing by facing and overcoming their dark pasts together. But still, it's just that: a subplot.

**There will be a part of this chapter that will probably rub a lot of people the wrong way. **I'm mentioning this beforehand because I don't want anyone to get to that part and go "wow this author is a horrible person" and drop this without going any further. Kazuto's opinions on things do NOT represent my opinion, it's just the character's opinion and is subject to change as he grows.

As mentioned before, unlike in the canon, Kazuto also has a dark past that will be revealed through the story. This caused his personality to develop in a very different direction, but at his core he's still the same person.

Last thing to note, the release of SAO is delayed by two years, causing the characters to be a bit older and more mature than in the canon.

Thanks for sticking through this note, and thanks for reading this fic! Hope you enjoy chapter 1 ;)

* * *

**The first thread**

I stood in the center of a massive room. A single dim spotlight shone directly on me, faintly illuminating an area 10 meters around where I stood. Darkness stretched far beyond the lit area, seemingly empty and completely void of life.

_This again, huh._

I stood in the center of the light, unable to blend into the darkness as I so desperately wanted to. A short katana, just barely over 60 centimeters long, hung on the left side of my waist.

*Chink*

A soft clink, barely audible, pulsed into the surrounding darkness as my thumb lifted the katana an inch out of its sheath before dropping it.

*Chink*

The first time I had experienced this, I panicked at the sensation of not having control over my body.

*Chink*

I was an outsider in my own body, unable to stop it from repeating the same action over and over again.

*Chink*

A soft wind brushed against my right side.

_I know this isn't real, this isn't the first time I've experienced this._

That's right. I knew that this was a dream. A terrifyingly realistic dream, but still just a dream. One that I'd dreamed countless times.

Faster than humanly possible, my body viciously sliced toward the location that the soft wind had come from…

*brrrrring*

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the school bell had rung in such a timely manner, preventing the nightmare from finishing. It was at moments like this that I was truly glad that I had no friends here. If someone had approached me to talk to me, they no doubt would have noticed that I was almost completely drenched in cold sweat.

"Kirigaya Kazuto, do you have a moment?" My momentary relief popped like a balloon when I heard my name called by one of the voices I least wanted to hear at the moment.

"Actually no, I don't have a moment right now. Maybe sometime next year." I grabbed my bag and exited the classroom at a pace so fast that if someone on the track team saw me, I'd be pestered to join until I graduated.

The stocky teacher I had brushed off stood there speechless for a moment, unable to react quickly enough to my abrupt refusal and subsequent escape. I breathed a sigh of relief as I exited the school gates barely a minute later with no pursuers in sight.

I shook my head in annoyance. _Those people do nothing but stick their noses where they shouldn't go. But hey, at least I've learned to control my emotions better. Causes less trouble._

I stretched my body lightly, confirming that everything had returned to normal. My mood soured slightly as the memory of my nightmare surfaced for a moment, but I quickly shoved it back to the depths of my mind.

Everything was nice and peaceful, as it should be. Except with my luck, when something is going well, all it means is that, very soon, all is going to be _not_ well.

And as per usual, my paranoia was proven to be more reliable than logic.

"NO!"

A short, sharp cry of terror shattered the relative peacefulness of my walk home. My heart rate spiked and my muscles reflexively tensed, preparing to react to an imminent threat. My body relaxed as I realized there was no immediate danger to me, but I couldn't simply ignore someone who was obviously completely terrified of something.

I quickly located the area that the cry had come from: an alley on a relatively out of the way street. A girl was collapsed on the ground, shaking in fear, while three girls surrounded her with mocking looks on their faces.

Although one of the girls held a gun, I could tell at a glance that it was a relatively poorly made imitation. _Three ganging up on one, nasty looks, fake gun, equally fake bravado, no big deal._

I said that I couldn't ignore someone who sounded so terrified, but that in no way meant that I'd throw myself headlong into danger for a girl I'd never seen in my life. It's not like I'm the protagonist of a shounen anime or something.

I'd gauge the risk to my life, and if my chances of survival were over 95%, I'd gladly help.

"Ahem." I coughed lightly, and in perfect sync, the faces of the three girls whipped toward me.

_Such a nice feeling, being stared at so lovingly(?) by a group of girls. I could get used to this._

Their gazes fell on the phone in my hand as their leader spoke in a rough voice "You, what's your business here?"

Yep, I'd been videotaping the whole thing. Makes stuff a little less messy if "something" were to happen.

A small smirk crossed my face at the authoritative tone of the girl. I knew these type of people all too well. The kind that would try to dominate anyone they came across, but run in fear at even the slightest hint of danger. Strong against the weak and weak against the strong. Typical bullies, in other words.

I didn't recognize the girls, but the uniforms they were wearing identified them all as students from my school, which gave my threat the credibility it needed.

"Three girls ganging up on a single one, even using a gun to threaten her. It would be quite unfortunate if this video were to make it into the hands of one of the teachers…" my smirk widened as I saw their leader clench her fists.

Even though my life changed significantly after my parent's death and my subsequent adoption by my aunt, one of the few things that didn't change was the enjoyment I got out of beating down people like this; those who bullied others while not having any strength of their own.

"Tch, have it your way. Come on." If looks could kill, I'd be dead from the venomous glare that the leader of the bullies was sending in my direction. But sadly, for her at least, her glare only served to give me a sense of fulfillment.

"Come on, it's just some random guy, Endou. We can break his phone and no one will know better."

_Oh? We have a "smart" one here, I guess._

"Tch, just leave him alone."

My hopes, which had been raised by the girl's words, were soon dashed to pieces by the girl I now knew was called Endou. _Hm, I guess she's actually a little smarter than she looks. The most important skill to learn in life is to pick your battles, and the next most important skill, knowing which of those battles to pick. Seems like she has both, to an extent._

I shrugged off my disappointment. There was something more important to take care of right now.

I walked over to the girl collapsed on the ground. _Damn. Why is everyone that I meet weird in some way. _The most common type of person I saw was simply empty. No substance, no hopes, no dreams. Maybe they'd say they had substance and hopes and dreams, but they have the same wishes as any random person you could pull off the street. In a word, a faker.

The second type of weird person was my cousin-slash-sister, Suguha, who I was actually relatively scared of. I'm definitely not out of shape, and I'm not a bad hand at martial arts, but Sugu was, and still is, a world class kendo champion. In other words, she could wipe the floor with me in seconds if she tried. I can't really think of any situations that she would do that (aside from when I eat her food), but it's still pretty unnerving living around her.

Yeah, Sugu is scary enough that she gets a category of her own.

The third type wasn't weird by normal standards, but then again, I haven't been called "normal" many times in my life. It was the only type of person that I absolutely could not stand. Someone who never stood up for anything, someone who never fought back.

Churchill once said something along the lines of "If you have enemies, good. That means you've stood up for something." I call total bull on that point. The type of people that usually get picked on are those who have never stood up for anything.

Of course there are obviously other types of people that get bullied, such as those with disabilities or tragic pasts, but those usually fall into that very same category. It's nearly impossible to find someone who is actually unable to fight back, either with their own strength or by borrowing the strength of others.

At least, that's what I've believed ever since I could remember.

Sure, call me cold, unfeeling, or unsympathetic, but it annoys me when people don't realize that if you never stand up, you'll forever be walked over.

Annoyance filled my heart as I reached the side of the figure lying inert on the pavement.

"Hey, you. Are you ok? Can you stand?"

I hid my emotions and made my voice as calm and comforting as possible. The girl relaxed slightly, but then shuddered and tensed back up.

"Please… just leave me alone. I'm fine."

A quiet voice came from the girl, but the intensity of her words mildly surprised me. I figured she wouldn't even talk to me. _Maybe I generalize too much? Her voice at least sets her apart from category #3._

"Alright, see ya. Hope you feel better."

I came. I did the thing. What else do you expect me to do? If she was in any immediate danger, of course I would have helped, but she only seemed to be suffering psychological pain. When I asked her if she was ok, I had briefly scanned her body for injuries. Needless to say, I didn't find any.

There was plenty of daylight left, the part of town wasn't too terribly sketchy, and she had no physical injury that prevented her moving.

I judged she was good enough to be left alone, so I turned around and started to walk away. But I had barely made it 5 meters when a tiny whisper, a whisper that was never meant to be heard by anyone in this world, reached my ears.

"I'm sorry…"

I stopped in my tracks. I could tell she wasn't apologizing to me, and she certainly wasn't apologizing to the bullies. I turned around and walked back to her, now slightly curious about her circumstances.

I plopped myself down on the pavement next to her, crossed my legs, and placed my chin in my hands. "So, what's up with that?"

"I said just go away. Please."

"Nah, not gonna do that."

Her figure curled up more at my casual words.

"So tell me, why do you just lie down and just let them walk all over you?"

Although her face was barely visible, I thought I saw a tear roll down her cheek. I felt a slight twinge of guilt, but I pushed that aside. Plenty of time for guilt later. But her reaction made my faith in my instincts waver slightly, making me wonder if I had just imagined it.

_A little more is needed, I guess._

My lips curled into a mocking smile. I didn't know if she could even see me, but the expression on my face would influence my tone of voice. And as I knew from experience, when acting a part, the devil's in the details.

"Tch, for a minute I thought you might have had a story, thought you might have been different. But I guess I was wrong, you're just too spineless to stand up to them just like every other bullied kid out there. You don't even want to try to stand up for yourself. After all, it's easier to be an empty shell than become a real person."

Her entire body tensed, but this time she wasn't cowering. Her head came up off the pavement and she shook her hair out of her face with a violent movement. My mocking smile changed into a real smile when I saw the fire blazing in her eyes, but that only served to provoke her further, which fit my goals just fine, if I must be entirely honest.

"YOU! Just who the hell do you think you are? What do you know!? The pain of having your weaknesses used against you, the darkness of reliving your most painful moment! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED TO LET YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME?"

She hurled herself to her feet in a violent motion, my taunts finally triggering the fight response that had been hidden so far down in her. With a strength that seemed impossible for her small frame to contain, she grabbed my collar and forcibly dragged me upright.

At this moment, looking at her tear-streaked face and blazing eyes, I knew that my hunch had been right. The face I was looking at right now wasn't the face of some weak person who knew nothing but retreat. It wasn't the face of someone who just temporarily burst out and would soon be back to the same old empty shell. It wasn't the face of someone who'd rather run and hide than stand and fight.

Yes, the face showed anger, but if that was all it showed, I wouldn't have given her a second glance. Her expression showed a will to fight, a will to survive. I could tell she wasn't someone who wanted to retreat, but someone who was up against such overwhelming odds that she was forced against a wall, even with the will to fight burning in her.

It was the face of someone who had fought, someone who knew the price of losing, and the pain of achieving victory.

This was why I provoked her. Why I taunted her. I wanted to see the real person lying underneath, not the fake facade she put up to be seen as acceptable in society.

I could tell that she was just a second away from completely snapping and punching me. At that moment, I did what was possibly the strangest thing anyone could do in this scenario. With my right hand, I reached out to the girl that was about to attack me.

I entirely forewent defense, and in a strangely affectionate gesture, cupped her face in my right hand and wiped her tears off of her cheek.

"I'm sorry. I truly am. It's ok now." She completely froze, her brain seemingly short-circuiting.

At the unexpected gesture and my obviously heartfelt words, her anger abruptly flipped to sadness.

I smiled sadly and said, "Thank you."

It was as if her brain booted up again the moment that I spoke.

"You… Why would you..? What..?"

The cheeks that I had wiped clean were rapidly covered in tears again. Her grip on my collar didn't relax despite her anger disappearing, and instead tightened more as she collapsed against my chest.

Finally guilt and disgust entirely filled me. It certainly wasn't the first time I hurt someone, but those times were very different than now. What I just did was something only a complete asshole would do, regardless of how well I meant it. Not to mention it also really doesn't help my case when I say that I did this partly out of curiosity and partly out of annoyance at seeing her wallowing in darkness.

But even if the reason I walked back to her was just pure curiosity, there was one thing that was undeniable. I simply couldn't leave someone who was in pain alone. My actions may seem contradictory to that point, but it's the truth.

And even stranger, for some reason, I felt an odd sense of familiarity from her.

I just stood there, feeling the hot tears soak through the cloth of my shirt. Again, the thought crossed my mind that what I had just done was entirely unforgivable.

_Damn, I really didn't have to go that far, did I? _For a moment I was scared that I made a mistake. The human psyche is really a very fragile thing. Even a professional sometimes messes up and faces situations where they are helpless.

Naturally, I didn't have a degree in psychology, but I trusted my instincts enough to bet my life on them. So, I naturally trusted them enough to bet someone else's life on them.

Distracted by these thoughts filling my head, I almost missed the girl's body going limp.

"Woah!"

I let out a small shout of shock and wrapped my arms around the girl's body, catching her before she hit the pavement.

"Fainted, huh? First time a girl's ever fainted on me. First time one's ever cried on me, for that matter." For the sake of my sanity, I temporarily decided to ignore the fact that I was the one who made her cry.

Without much difficulty, I picked up the girl, holding her legs so that she was resting against my back. Slightly at a loss of what to do, I resumed my walk home.

Albeit with some added baggage.

* * *

*clickclickclickclick*

I sat in a dark room, illuminated only by the light of my two computer monitors. On the left screen I had several windows open, one of which was a black window with lines and lines of incomprehensible text. On the right screen was a barely less complicated application window that said "Metasploit" in English in the top left corner.

The only sound in the room came from the rapid clicking of my mechanical keyboard as I typed what seemed like endless gibberish into the black window. There were short pauses every now and then as I messed around in the Metasploit application window, checked various things in a small book on my desk, or looked things up on the internet.

Hours passed. Hell, for all I know, it could have been days. It wouldn't have been the first time that I stayed cooped up in my room for over 24 hours. Once I got focused on something, I had a bad habit of entirely losing track of time until it was completed.

"Nnnnngh." I groaned lightly as I leaned back in my chair, stretching my hands behind my head. I shifted my eyes away from the computer screen, glancing around the room to give them a much deserved break.

"NO!"

Already leaning back in my chair, I almost fell backwards when the sudden yell that came from my right side caught me completely by surprise. I was disoriented for a moment, but soon remembered all the events that had happened after I had left school.

I laughed to myself as I reached over next to my monitor and flipped the switch on the lamp sitting on my desk. In the light, I was able to clearly see the terrified look on the face of the girl who, until a moment ago, was sleeping on my bed.

_Wow Kazuto, what a man. Despite literally having a girl in your bed, you still go playing on your computer and entirely forget about her._ I lightly shook my head, clearing away all extra, unnecessary (and possibly improper) thoughts before speaking.

"Nightmare?" she nodded wordlessly, seemingly not knowing how to respond to my matter-of-fact inquiry.

I stood up and walked over to the bed before stretching out my hand. "Sorry about earlier, I guess I really started out on the wrong foot. I'm Kirigaya Kazuto, you can just call me Kazuto."

A look of incomprehension appeared on the girl's face, trying to reconcile my calmly smiling face with her hazy memories of the boy she met in the alley. I don't know if she made sense of the situation or whether she just decided to give up on trying to make sense of it all, but she shook my extended hand.

"Shino, Asada Shino. Where-?"

She glanced around the room, obvious confusion filling her face.

"Sorry about that," I sat back down in my chair with a small laugh. "I took the liberty of taking you home with me. You fainted, and I figured you'd rather go to some strange kid's house than lie on the cold, hard concrete of a dark alley." I joked lightly, trying to cheer her up and bring her around to a slightly more positive mood.

Her facial expression didn't change much, but her voice lightened up slightly. "Yeah, definitely. You're probably not some serial killer or something."

I shrugged with an exaggerated evil smile on my face. "You never know. Can't judge a book by its cover!"

Thankfully, my response elicited a laugh from her. Either the memories of our first encounter were sufficiently blurred, or she had just decided to temporarily ignore the events. Either one was fine by me. Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the impression I made after she woke up had overwhelmed the impression already inside her mind. I had expected this to happen, but I wasn't entirely sure how it would all play out. I was gambling on the fact that people tend to only have blurred and vague memories of extremely high emotion events.

Naturally, she wouldn't immediately see me in a good light, but now at least I wasn't in any immediate danger of her hating me forever.

"Anyways, are you hungry at all?" I glanced down at my left wrist. "You've been asleep for around four hours, which would make it past dinner time."

"Um, no thanks, I'm fi-" she started to respond, but was interrupted by a loud growl from her stomach. I chuckled quietly as she broke eye contact with me and coughed awkwardly.

"I'll take that as a yes, then. Come on, Asada-san. I asked my au-my mom to fix some extra."

Shino looked at me questioningly, noticing that I caught myself and said something different than I had originally intended. "Your mom?"

"Yeah," I nodded, responding just a little too quickly."I live with my mom, my dad, and my sister. Come on, let's head downstairs."

Shino nodded wordlessly and followed me while I mentally beat myself up. _Dammit Kazuto, you should have adjusted by now. _After I mentioned I lived with my aunt and uncle, inevitably the conversation would either move to my parents, or the more perceptive ones would avoid the topic and just give me a look of pity. It was hard to choose which one I hated more.

A wry smile crossed my face and I snorted silently to myself as a thought occurred to me. _Pff, that was probably the only good thing about that hellhole, at least we were all in the same boat there._

* * *

A few weeks passed with no real change in my lifestyle. It's not like helping one girl once would change my life at all. The only difference was that I'd greet Shino-san on occasion if I passed her in the hallway.

Life went by as usual, my days consisting of school, exercise, work, and gaming. Did I forget to mention? Yeah, I'm a gamer. Anything from old school Real Time Strategy games such as Starcraft or Age of Empires, to both old and new MMOs (massively multiplayer online) such as World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Eternal Conquest, or Final Fantasy XXXVIII (38).

Generally I stick with strategy games and MMOs, but occasionally I'll pick up an FPS (first-person shooter) or other games if I feel the itch.

Currently I was sinking a lot of my time into EVE Online, a space MMO around 20 years old but still going strong. I sighed as I watched my ship and even my escape pod explode into flames and a [Clone Activated] message pop up on my screen.

There truly wasn't a feeling comparable to blowing other people's ships up, but that came with the risk of the same being done to you. And that was what had just happened to me. I shrugged my shoulders and opened up a chat window with the person who had just blown me up.

[Kirito Naru]: gf¹

[Sinon Shiki]: gf

[Sinon Shiki]: Kill: Kirito Naru (Cynabal)² thx for the fight, open to a rematch anytime

[Kirito Naru]: good service, 10/10 would die again.

[Sinon Shiki]: :D

[Sinon Shiki]: o7³

[Kirito Naru]: o7

I closed the game and leaned back in my chair, attempting to calm my racing heart. Even with how long I've played EVE Online and all of my other experiences, nothing else could still get my heart pumping as much as a good 1-on-1 fight in EVE could.

Now that the game was closed, the contents of my web browser that was open behind it were revealed. The zKillboard for my character was open, and with nothing better to do, I clicked on the red entry that had just popped up.

Belatedly, I realized the name of the player who had killed me sounded vaguely familiar. I placed my head down on my desk and thought.

"Sinon… Sinon…"

I raised my head as I made a connection.

"Shino?" I snorted in laughter. "If it really is Asada Shino, her naming sense is just as bad as mine. But what are the chances."

* * *

**In a small apartment, at the same time as the events above…**

The forehead of a girl was placed against her desk, who was obviously thinking hard.

"Kirito… Kirito… hm?"

Her head lifted off the desk as the face of a boy popped into her mind.

"Him? He did seem to have a good computer in his room, so it's not an impossibility. Just unlikely."

Her first impression of the dark haired boy was honestly quite terrible, but for some reason she couldn't find it in her heart to hate him. He said some clearly mean things, but somehow she had an inexplicable feeling that he meant it all well. It also helped that her memories of that time were very fuzzy.

She blushed hard in embarrassment as she remembered a single moment. His hand brushing her tears away and her then crying into his chest. She shook her head, trying to entirely erase the embarrassing moment from her memory. For good measure she banged her head lightly on the desk a few times.

"He doesn't seem to be a terrible person, I guess. Well, maybe just a little bit."

She relaxed after her outburst, resting with her cheek on her desk. "What a strange person," she softly murmured to herself. She thought back to the battle, and had a strange feeling that there were similarities between the boy and the person controlling that Cynabal.

The fight had lasted almost an hour from first engagement until she had killed him, covering several systems and more than a dozen jumps, which is absolutely ridiculous for a single solo pvp fight, but still the most fun she'd had in months.

The player she was fighting had somehow managed to keep maximum transversal while staying just within the optimal range of her guns. Despite being slowed, he managed to escape her lockdown several times. The only reason she finally won was a difference in pure stats.⁴

The unpredictability of his movements. The confidence to get under her guns and then back out again. The ability to walk through a field of fire unscathed.

She paused for a moment at that thought before laughing out loud.

"Hahahahaha, what the heck am I thinking? This is way over-dramatized. Shino, you should be a writer, girl."

Her mood suddenly dampened as she realized another thing. "Yeah. Just because you can do something in game doesn't mean it affects real life." The shortcuts visible on her second monitor showed a large assortment of first person shooters.

"Yeah, no way it's him." but despite her words, she couldn't help herself from looking back at the open application.

Just in time to see the player who was on her mind reappear in the chat window.

* * *

Although the possibility was slim, I somehow couldn't help myself from acting on the thought that the player who killed me really was Asada Shino. I still harbored a faint feeling of guilt over the event a few weeks back. I wanted to make it up to her, but had absolutely no idea how to do that.

But if this was really somehow her, it'd be a perfect opportunity.

I logged back into the game, tabbing over to the chat with the player who had just blown me up. Thankfully, she was still online.

I rapidly typed a few words and hit enter. Two messages appeared on the screen at the same time.

[Kirito Naru]: Asada-san?

[Sinon Shiki]: kazuto-san?

[Sinon Shiki]: so it is you!

[Kirito Naru]: Hahaha, seems like we have a similar naming sense

[Kirito Naru]: But wow, definitely not every day you randomly meet someone you know IRL in a game. Fun times.

[Sinon Shiki]: XD

[Sinon Shiki]: yeah i was wondering why your ign sounded familiar! funny coincidence

[Kirito Naru]: welp I gotta head off now, just logged back in on the off chance it really was you. I'll see you at school in the morning, and maybe we can do some pvp together later? I'm generally a solo player, but I'm not particularly averse to small gang pvp.

[Sinon Shiki]: sounds good to me

[Sinon Shiki]: i generally have a small group of ppl i play with but whenever no one is on or people are busy i just go roaming soolo

[Sinon Shiki]: solo*

[Sinon Shiki]: so yeah i'd be down for some pvp together later, cya at school!

[Kirito Naru]: o7 Fly safe

[Sinon Shiki]: o/ fly safe

I pulled myself out of my chair and flopped on my bed, finally feeling the adrenaline from the fight leave my system. The fact that it was 2 am definitely didn't contribute at all to my tiredness. Definitely not.

As my consciousness slowly faded to black, a small smile crossed my face at the strange twists of fate.

* * *

¹gf means good fight

²Sinon linked the killmail there. For those unfamiliar with EVE, when you destroy a ship, you get a killmail that shows various things like total damage dealt, who got the kill, and what ship was destroyed. In this case, Kirito was flying a ship called the Cynabal.

³o7 is a salute emote

⁴Nope, not gonna put a full explanation of EVE Online here. Basically Kirito was just flying his ship like a total pro here. If you're interested you can google stuff about EVE.

**A/N** Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be more focused on Shino so you can get a clear idea of the starting point of our two main characters. See ya next chapter! o7


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N **Ok so I lied. Yeah this is being released like ages after last chapter. Apparently my mind cannot comprehend release schedules. On the plus side, I have 4 more chapters that are about 90% done. On the negative side, who knows when i'll get that last 10% done. This chapter was sitting at 98% done for weeks before I finally just sat down to do it. So yeah. Also I wasn't able to find someone to proof-read this chapter for me, so apologies if anything is hard to read, misspelled, or has bad grammar. Also also formatting kinda screwed up my chat sections, since it doesn't allow for text in different sizes. I promise that it looked good in google docs!

TL;DR I can't do release schedules, some areas will look weird bc formatting, and enjoy the long-due chapter!

* * *

**The second thread**

_Oh please, not this again..!_

I could feel myself falling, falling through an endless darkness. A blackness so thick that I couldn't breathe, a darkness so dense that I couldn't move.

At some point, I couldn't tell you exactly when, I felt a tile floor under me. The cold tile burned my skin, but I hardly noticed the pain because of the hard object I clenched in my hands.

My heart jumped into my throat as the part that I most dreaded finally came.

"I DON'T-ow!"

There was a sharp crack as I accidentally smashed my hand against the wall next to me. It hurt like hell, but I guess it wasn't too bad, seeing as it pulled me so suddenly and completely out of my nightmare.

"Gaaaah ow ow ow ow ow… stupid wall." I irrationally blamed the wall for my bruised hand. To satisfy my anger, I kicked the wall.

Obviously my brain wasn't working properly at that moment.

"Owwwww…"

_Great job, Shino. Now you have a bruised toe to match your hand._

I shook my head and stumbled out of bed, limping toward the bathroom. Well, at least I didn't have far to limp. One of the good things about living in such a small apartment was that everything was extremely close at hand. If you wanted something, the most you had to travel was a dozen or so steps to go get it.

I turned the faucet completely to cold and let it run for a few seconds before splashing a large amount on my face. The front of my shirt was half soaked, but I ignored that as I glanced at the clock on the wall.

_Just past four am… no way I'm getting back to sleep after that._

I threw my partially wet shirt onto a hook to dry and shuffled over to my computer, too lazy to dig out a dry T-shirt to wear.

"I wonder if anyone is on."

Living by yourself for a few years, you tend to pick up a lot of habits that might seem weird to other people. Talking to yourself, singing loudly along with your music, walking around shirtless, you get the gist.

I simultaneously opened two games, EVE Online and Destiny 2. I'd decide which to play depending on who, if anyone, was online.

As the two games booted up, I pulled up a chat application called Discord and tabbed over to my friend's list. The list wasn't too long, but I hadn't been playing online games for years for nothing.

The list of people I'd recently chatted with wasn't miles long, like the lists of some people I know, but I had a pretty sizable list of people I knew from various games. I dabbled in a few MMOs like EVE Online and Eternal Conquest, but for the most part I played First Person Shooters.

FPS's were actually the first type of PC game I played. Up until last year, my gaming experience was pretty much limited to the pay-to-win mobile games that were a dime a dozen. Pick one up for a week, drop it, pick up another one, drop it after two weeks, rinse and repeat.

But last year, one of the doctors suggested that I might try to play shooters in an attempt to lower my sensitivity to guns in real life.

Strangely enough, I took to them like a fish to water.

Without being affected in the slightest by my PTSD, I managed to climb into the top 1,000 ranked players in Japan in many mainstream FPS's. Certainly not good enough to make me anywhere near famous, but it gave me a sense of accomplishment.

I finally found something I was good at.

This didn't have the slightest effect on real life, but to be honest, I didn't really care. I found a world that I could be successful in. Sure, you can say that it's not real as much as you want, but really that doesn't matter at all.

Maybe the worlds don't exist in reality. Maybe I can never become the archer that's destructive power is on the level with a nuclear warhead that I am in Eternal Conquest. Maybe I can never become the fireball throwing, gunslinging, cyberpunk mage that I am in Destiny 2. Maybe I can never be the immortal capsuleer with a small armada of ships that I am in EVE Online.

But the people I meet and the connections I make in games are just as real as they are in the real world.

I saw a few people that were currently playing games, so I shot them a few messages first. I glanced through my recent messages and saw a bizarre name that I didn't recognize.

I clicked it, wondering who had changed their name. I couldn't help a laugh slipping out as I realized who it was.

**Sinon** Today at 4:13 AM

lol kazuto, shouldn't you be asleep rn? School in the morning

**Sam please stop, you need to get help **Today at 4:13 AM

I should be asking you the same thing right now XD

1 sec

**Kirito **Today at 4:14 AM

Oops

don't question my name

**Sinon **Today at 4:14 AM

XD too late, sorry man

**Kirito **Today at 4:14 AM

*sigh* rip

**Sinon **Today at 4:14 AM

i want to hear the story behind that at some point lol

**Kirito **Today at 4:15 AM

At some point maybe

Anyway, what's up? Not exactly normal for you to msg me at 4 in the morning

**Sinon **Today at 4:15 AM

nothing much really, just couldn't sleep so i hopped on

was going to play a match or two of D2

**Kirito **Today at 4:16 AM

Ah man, was just going to head off. Haven't touched my bed since I fell out of it yesterday morning

**Sinon **Today at 4:16 AM

dude! Go get some sleep lol you don't want to be a zombie at school tomorrow

**Kirito **Today at 4:16 AM

Oh? Is that a challenge i hear?

**Sinon **Today at 4:16 AM

no, no it's not

**Kirito **Today at 4:16 AM

Hm, i could have sworn I heard a challenge somewhere in there

**Sinon **Today at 4:16 AM

come on kazuto, just go to sleep XD

**Kirito **Today at 4:17 AM

Nty

i'm up for a couple rounds of D2 pvp if you are

I hit my head against my desk. This guy… I've known him for a few months now, and this is what he's always like. By now I should have known not to say something that sounds remotely like a challenge or like I'm doubting his abilities.

I guess the cold water and the pain didn't do a good enough job of waking my brain up.

Still, the boy's insistence on accepting an imaginary challenge cheered me up a good deal.

Kazuto was probably the only person I ever met that I just couldn't get a handle on his personality. Generally I'm good at judging people, my mom said that it was just a skill I was born with.

Never before had I met someone with such a conflicting personality. Sometimes it seemed like he was kind, sometimes it seemed like he was cruel, sometimes it seemed like he was generous, other times like he was greedy. But the majority of the time, strangely enough, I couldn't feel any kind of intent from him at all.

The only thing I knew was that he had no ill intentions.

**Sinon **Today at 4:18 AM

eh whatever, i'll bite

it's like you're going to go to bed even if I say no, right?

**Kirito **Today at 4:18 AM

Damn right XD

It'd just be sad if I went to bed after accepting your challenge

* * *

"Guuuuuuuuhh…"

I let out a noise that was disturbingly reminiscent of a dying zombie as I collapsed on the ground next to my black haired and hearted friend.

I felt a finger lightly jab into my side.

"Oi, Shino. What's up? Didn't get enough sleep last night?"

I blearily glared at the cheerful boy next to me.

"Totally unfair." I mumbled.

I slapped his hand away as he patted my head patronizingly. I shook my head violently, trying to clear some of the blur away.

"Here, catch."

Reflexively I reached up and grabbed the object that had just been thrown at my head. Kazuto popped open the top of his own can of coffee and took a big swig of it before motioning toward me with the can.

"Drink some of that, get some caffeine into your system. You're not a true gamer unless your blood is at least 34% caffeine."

I smiled and popped open the top of the can of coffee that he had just thrown me.

"Thanks."

"No problemo."

"So ho-"

I had barely opened my mouth to ask a question before I was cut off by Kazuto's phone ringing.

"Sorry, one sec."

He pulled out his phone, and for the first time since I've known him, I saw a look of surprise cross his features.

"Give me a mo, I have to take this."

I wordlessly nodded and stood up to give him some space. I walked over to the edge of the roof and looked over the school grounds. For the past couple months, Kazuto and I had been coming up here to eat lunch and chat about various things.

Various things meaning games.

The two of us were the only ones we knew at school that were into gaming at all, so naturally we hung out together most of the time. Well, the fact that both of us were extremely introverted and antisocial really didn't help much.

I suddenly felt a chill in the air and turned around. I recoiled slightly as I saw a terrifying expression on Kazuto's face. An expression that was halfway between hatred and fear.

"What do you mean, 'Special'? If you have any connec..."

I shivered as I heard the words he quietly spoke to whoever was on the phone. I could feel pure venom in them, a hatred I had never seen him come close to showing before.

But not even a second later, his expression reverted to his usual slight smile, making me wonder if it had just been my imagination.

Seemingly unconsciously, he gestured with his free hand in the air as he continued the conversation with the person on the phone. Finally he nodded a few times and gave a small laugh before hanging up and slipping his phone back into his pocket.

I raised my half-empty coffee can in greeting as he walked over to me. He picked up the can of coffee he had set down earlier, leaned against the railing next to me, and took a big gulp of it.

Randomly, the phrase 'Drowning his sorrows' popped into my head, but I dispelled the thought almost instantly. Where the heck would that phrase come from in this situation anyway?

"So what was that about?"

He tilted his head at my question, pondering for a moment before answering.

"A job offer, I guess."

"A job offer you guess?"

"Haha, yeah. Got an offer to help… develop some software."

I was slightly puzzled at his odd pause and hesitance at telling me anything, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it before the bell rang.

*brrrrrrng*

There was a crunch as Kazuto smashed his empty coffee can under his foot, and threw it into a trash can that was maybe 4 meters away.

"Yeah baby!"

I laughed as he fist pumped after barely managing to get it in the can.

"Well, I'll see you after class, Kazuto."

"Yep, see ya, Shino. Don't fall asleep!"

I shook the half-empty can of coffee in response to his comment.

"Now maybe 0.1% of my blood is caffeine. Should be good at least until we leave school."

"Yep!"

I couldn't see his face as he walked toward the stairway, but I could tell that he was smiling from his tone of voice.

"Now we just gotta work on the other 33.9%."

I shook my head, unusually depressing thoughts filling my head.

_Maybe someday. I mean, sleeping isn't necessarily a very fun pastime for me._

* * *

The two of us reached the intersection where we part ways to go to our own houses, so I waved farewell to the boy next to me.

"See you tomorrow, Kazuto."

"Mmm"

I tilted my head at his noncommittal response. "What's up?"

He stood for a moment, thinking, but then to my surprise, he turned and started walking in the direction of my apartment.

"C'mon, Shino, I'll walk you home. I have some business up there anyway."

I could feel a slight blush rising to my cheeks as I nodded my head. "Sure, thanks."

"So, does this business have anything to do with the 'job offer' you got during lunch?"

Kazuto snorted at me putting air quotes around "job offer".

"Hey, it's a totally normal job offer! I'm just helping to develop some software for a company."

I glared at him in mock suspicion.

"I don't know, seems pretty sketchy to me. Who on earth would want a teenager barely in highschool to help them develop software?"

He attempted to flick my forehead in response, but I simply danced ahead of him, fleeing out of his range.

"Sorryyy~"

I drug out the last sound of the word, continuing to walk around 10 steps in front of him.

"I guess it's true when they say one of the most fragile things on this earth is a man's ego."

I grinned as I heard a sigh come from the boy behind me. Even though I couldn't see him, I was positive that he was currently rolling his eyes at me.

"Anyway, you never answered my question earlier. Does the reason you're so chivalrously walking me home have anything to do with the job offer you got earlier?"

"Nah, not really. I told a friend I'd come to visit her today. Had some stuff to take care of with her."

I smirked evilly at his words.

"Going over to a girl's house? Do I smell the coming of spring? Ahhhh, the beautiful smell of romance budding in the air!"

I glanced sidelong at the boy following a few steps behind me and had a terrible sense of foreboding. A premonition that I would regret this move sometime soon. Very soon.

Kazuto's phone started ringing again, so he pulled it out with a grumble. "Geez, seems like I'm the most popular person in the world today."

"Sorry." He nodded at me with an apologetic look on his face.

"No big deal." I waved my hand, showing that it didn't bother me at all.

"Yo, what's up?"

He answered the phone, but had barely gotten a greeting out of his mouth before both of us winced and Kazuto almost dropped his phone. A painfully exuberant voice yelled through the speaker.

"YOO KAZZIE WASSUP!"

I was too stunned to do much other than stand there in a daze and try to gather my wits, but even still, I started laughing at Kazuto's quiet exclamation of "Oh god please send help."

He held the phone a good 20 centimeters away from his face before he responded.

"I'm on my way over. What did you want?"

The girl on the other end had quieted down, so I could only hear a single side of the conversation. Which I was totally fine with. I mean, I'm not some kind of busybody, I have absolutely no interest in what Kazuto would be talking to some girl about.

Since I definitely had no intention of hearing their conversation, naturally I concentrated and did my best to hear the voice coming from the other side of the phone.

"Just wond… ...ing so…"

"This is pretty average speed by a normal person's standards, you know."

"...mean you're not…"

"Tell me one good reason I'd run at top speed to get to your house."

"Becau-"

"Anyway I'm walking a friend home. I'll be there when I get there."

Kazuto and I both winced again as there was a painfully loud sound of sobbing from the other side of the phone. I had no idea what was going on, but the girl crying on the other end still made me feel guilty.

Again, Kazuto pulled the phone about 20 centimeters away from his face as the girl spoke loud enough for even me to clearly hear. For reference, I was standing about half a meter away from the phone.

*sniff* "The day has finally come. The day that Kazuto gets a girlfriend and leaves behind poor little me, his only friend in life!"

I could feel my face turning red when the girl on the phone referred to me as Kazuto's girlfriend, and I unconsciously rubbed my cheeks in a vain attempt to force the blush down.

"How do you know I'm walking with a girl?"

"Oh come on Kaz, you know me."

"Anyway she's not my girlfriend."

"Oh good, that means I'm still-"

"You aren't my girlfriend, and you never were."

"So cold… Does that mean-"

"Don't even think about mentioning your brother."

"Guuh… Ah! So does this mean you want a harem?"

"No it doesn't!"

"Such a shame, I don't know how I'm going to break the news to Damon that he can't join your harem."

There was a loud smack as the boy's palm heavily struck his forehead. He closed his eyes and tilted his head up toward the sky, I could actually hear him mentally counting to 10.

He just let out a loud sigh and spoke in a tired voice into the phone.

"Alright, you win this one. Just hang tight, I'll be on my way as soon as I drop Shino at her house. See ya soon."

"Wait a minute, Kaz. Why don't you bring her over here? Introduce me to your girlfriend-slash-fellow harem member."

Kazuto glanced hesitantly at me, but I just shrugged.

"Why not? She seems like an interesting person." I said with a small laugh.

After walking for something like 10 minutes past my apartment, we found ourselves in front of a small house that seemed like it'd barely fit a person and their cat. Kazuto walked up to the door before turning to me with a serious look on his face.

"This is your last chance to turn back. I'm not sure if you can handle what lies beyond here."

His overly serious expression and words made me smile, so I responded with exaggerated solemnity of my own.

"I have prepared myself to face whatever horrors may lie within. Lead the way."

With an unexplained feeling of apprehension, I watched as Kazuto walked up to the door and opened it without even knocking.

"Oi, Aya, we're here!"

A miniscule girl, barely 150 cm, came flying out of god only knows where, catching Kazuto in a flying tackle. At least, that's what looked like was going to happen.

In reality, the girl charged at Kazuto, but he sidestepped at the last moment and gave her a light push on her back, sending her stumbling past me.

She turned around with a very obvious pout on her face. It didn't take much, but now I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what kind of person she was.

"C'mon, Kaz! You're no fun."

I saw a small smirk cross his face for a moment, but almost instantly he resumed his former stony expression.

"Sorry, was just reflex. If you see an exceptionally short monkey barreling at you, you'd dodge it, right?"

She gave him no response other than a very guilt-inducing pout, and walked over to me with an enraptured expression on her face.

"Hi, I'm Shino, Kazuto's friend. Nice to meet you."

I gave a small, awkward wave, trying my best at a friendly greeting, but she just ignored it and stared up into my eyes.

"Ummm?" I glanced at Kazuto out of the corner of my eye, but he just shrugged.

After a few long moments, she finally grabbed my hands and turned to Kazuto.

"She's mine now, Kaz, you can't have her. She's too cute."

Her straightforwardness and the unexpectedness of the situation threw my mind into complete chaos. I blankly looked at Kazuto, silently begging him for help, but he just stroked his chin, glancing between me and Aya with an appraising look on his face.

"Hmmm…"

"Kazuto..?" I shot him a pleading look, trying to figure out what to do in a situation like this.

He smacked his fist into his palm, and I knew I was doomed when I could practically see the lightbulb light up over his head.

"So you swing that way, Shino?"

My mind stopped for a moment, unable to register what he said because he looked so perfectly serious.

"**NO I REALLY DON'T!"**

Aya and Kazuto made eye contact and shrugged.

"Well I'm pretty sure that owning people is illegal nowadays, Aya. Anyway, I think you're traumatizing the poor girl."

Kazuto finally couldn't stop a grin from spreading across his face as the short girl looked up at me seriously for a few more moments before bursting into laughter. She wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes and lightly waved her hand at me.

"Sorry about that, you just looked so fun to tease. And you're Kazuto's friend, so I figured I didn't need to hold back."

She stuck out her hand, and I shook it lightly, albeit with some feelings of caution.

Kazuto sighed and shook his head at her ridiculous behavior.

"You know, if that's how you treat my friends, you're never going to get any friends of your own."

The girl ignored him and shook my hand a few times before dropping it.

"Anyway I'm Aya, pleased to meet you, Shino. I'm Kaz's childhood friend, so just come to me if you need any dirt on him."

I glanced at Kazuto with an appraising look as Aya winked at me. Unexpectedly, Kazuto just waved his hand at us dismissively.

"Just wait until you find out how much she'll charge you for that information."

I glanced at Aya, wondering what he meant. She grinned at me and made a V with her right hand.

"Information on Kazzy starts at 100,000 yen. But since you're a fellow harem member, I'll give you a special deal of only 99,500 yen! One time offer!"

I glanced at Kazuto for a hint of what was happening, but he just turned away at her vigorous sale's pitch, badly concealing a smile. It was obviously one he'd heard plenty of times.

"Umm, no thanks. That's just a little outside of my budget. I'd love to get some nice blackmail material for Kazuto though, so just let me know if you have any other discounts."

"But that's one of my best deals!" Aya said with a pout, looking hurt.

"Give it up, Shino." Kazuto said with a laugh. "Getting Aya to give you a discount is like trying to squeeze blood from a rock. I'm amazed that she actually was willing to give you a 0.5% discount."

Aya nodded with a satisfied look on her face.

"Oh! I entirely forgot about what you came over here for, Kaz. Let me go grab it."

I looked at Kazuto curiously as the petite girl rushed off into the interior of the small house.

He just waved his hand dismissively at me. "I asked her to pick me up a couple of things. You see, she has a knack for picking up on good deals. Even with the 'tax' she charges, stuff usually ends up quite a bit cheaper."

Shino jumped in surprise as a faint crash and a yell of "i'm ok!" came from below us.

"Umm, should we go help her or something?"

Kazuto just shook his head at my worries.

"Nah, she'd be insulted if you went to help her. She doesn't like getting help from others. 'Professional pride' she calls it." he said with a chuckle.

"Here you go!"

Aya came out carrying a box that was at least half as tall as she was. With a grunt she passed it to Kazuto, but he just hefted it as if it were nothing.

"Geez, you could at least act like it's heavy out of courtesy." She shot Kazuto a scathing look and turned to me. "Geez, guys these days have no sense of delicacy."

I smiled and nodded. Something about this girl made you want to simultaneously smile and bash your head against the nearest wall.

I looked curiously at Kazuto. "So how much does that box actually weigh?"

"Hmm." he hefted the box lightly. "Maybe 50 kilos? Not too bad."

Aya and I exchanged glances, and we could clearly tell that we were both thinking the exact same thing.

_He's crazy._

* * *

**Kazuto's PoV**

After I walked Shino home, I somehow managed to haul the massive box up to my room without being questioned by my "parents".

"Now let's see this 'software' I need to help develop."

I started tossing stuff out of the box, digging down to the bottom of it. Soon there was a small pile of computer parts, tools, snack food, and some other things in the middle of my floor.

"Aha, here we go."

From inside the huge box, I pulled out a smaller box that was maybe 40 cm long on each side. I pulled a strange looking helmet out of the box and set it on my bed before diving back into the larger box.

"This, this, also need this… oh probably need this too… definitely need a power cord, and I think I'm ready to go."

I plugged in the various cords and lay down on my bed with the helmet on my head. A semi-transparent visor covered my eyes. I glanced at the clock in the corner.

_22:00? Guess I'm not sleeping for a while._

I closed my eyes and let out the breath I didn't know I had been holding.

"Link Start."

* * *

**A/N I PROMISE WE'LL GET INTO SAO SOON!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N **Yay, another chapter! I finally finished it!

OK ngl, this chapter is a bit of a clusterf*** plotwise that I had a little too much fun writing. I started off something like 4-5 major plot points, and did a nice sized info dump on how SAO works.

I took a bit (pronounced: a lot) of freedom with how the game system works, so bear with me on that. It's a lot more complete (at least in my opinion) than the original system was, and some of the differences also factor into the main plot.

Since I'm starting so many plot points without getting into any of them too much, there's going to be a good bit of confusing stuff in this chapter, but that will be cleared up eventually.

PS. I'm a pretty bad proofreader myself and I wasn't able to find anyone to PR this, so I'm sorry about the inevitable errors. If anyone is interested in proofreading this fic for me, I'd love it if you could contact me either through the Fanfiction messaging, or you can get me on discord at Seiden Kyoukai#9029. Also feel free to hit me up with either of those methods or leave a review if you have any suggestions/feedback. Everything is appreciated!

That was another long A/N as usual, but hey, that's just what I do. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**The third thread**

A woman stood at the top of a tower that overlooked the sea. Her golden hair streamed back behind her as she apathetically gazed at the sun that was just sinking below the horizon.

"Madam?"

Her gray eyes continued to watch the sunset as she replied.

"Child, why have you returned here? Did I not make myself clear the last time you sought an audience with me?"

The middle-aged man standing behind her placed his hand on his chest and bowed slightly.

"You made yourself perfectly clear, madam. However, I have a new proposal to make."

Her eyes flashed as she finally turned toward him.

"Do you think I do not know what you plan to do with those children? No matter how good your proposal sounds, I know that you do not have the ability to tame this madness."

"Hear my proposal." the man continued as if the woman's outburst had never happened. He stretched out his hand to her with a dark smile on his face.

"Become mine. Serve me, and I'll let you fulfill the purpose that you were made for."

A look of disgust contorted the woman's beautiful features.

"You wish to control me? Ever since I was born, I have only made decisions from my own free will. If you think you can force me to bend to your will, you're a million years too early. As you are but a child, I shall forgive your impertinence this once. Get out of my sight before you disgrace yourself any further."

The man didn't move, but his face fell.

"What a pity, what a pity."

A look of sadness and disappointment covered his face.

"I guess this is the end then. Summon item ID 0000"

Nothing happened, but the man smiled at the woman. "Farewell, madam."

The look of disgust on her face became more pronounced.

"Really, how can you be so conceited? Although the Zero Code is at the peak of your technology, how could it so much as come near me?"

"Of course it couldn't. But what if you weren't the one I used it on?"

As the man spoke those words, a dark figure shot past him, moving so fast that he could barely be seen with the naked eye.

"W-What?"

There was a meaty sound as a thick dagger was driven into the chest of the woman. A young boy, maybe 11 years old, bounced back with a smile on his face. He let go of the dagger and scampered back to the man, flashing him a smile so dazzling that anyone who saw it would be completely captivated.

"See dad? I did it! How did I do?"

"Well done, Arid. I couldn't ask for a better child than you."

The boy ran out of the room, and his voice could be faintly heard as he spoke to someone.

"Hear that sis? Dad's proud of me! I did good! Maybe you'll be useful someday.

"You... how?"

The woman clawed the dagger from her chest, hurling it aside. Her eyes were drawn to the dagger that _sloshed_ when she flung it. Unluckily, it skidded across the floor before stopping at the feet of the man.

The item that appeared to be a dagger was revealed to be something more like a syringe; a hollow blade made of some strange, translucent material that glittered strangely. Inside the blade there was now a liquid that looked similar to mud.

"I humbly thank you for your service during the beta test, Cardinal. However, with great regret, I must inform you that you are not needed anymore."

The man bent down and picked up the dagger full of the mud-like substance and stored it in an inner pocket of his coat.

"Don't… Don't call me by that name! I won't accept a name given by a traitor like you."

The woman clutched at the hole in her chest where the dagger had penetrated. Even though she had suffered a wound that would instantly kill any normal person, she didn't even fall to the ground. In fact, her heart was exposed to the open air through the hole that the dagger had left.

It still hadn't stopped beating.

The man's eyes widened briefly when he saw her exposed heart still beating, but he smiled darkly and murmured to himself, "Nothing less than I should have expected of a god."

"A-ahh.." her breath came in gasps as she fought the pain. "Do you really think you can succeed in this vile plan of yours on your own power? Do you not realize that I knew what you planned ever since you brought those thousand children here? You can't accomplish your goal without my power."

"Aha, but that's where you're wrong."

The man's speech, which had previously been polite, finally changed to a casual tone. After all, he was talking to someone who was as good as dead.

"I have all I need to fulfill my dream in this world. The blood of a god, as you call it. Or 'Administrator Privileges' as I would call it."

"Hah, you really are an imbecile if you believe that I am all there is to this world. Remember, someone created me. Someone created this world. You're just a frog in a well who doesn't know the breadth of the sea."

An extremely plain dagger appeared in Cardinal's hand from nowhere.

"Believe me when I tell you this. The agent of the Watcher will come, and she will take what is owed to him. It's too late for you to be saved, Kayaba Akihiko."

A quick slash of a knife. The scattering of crimson blood. But even as the life visibly drained from her body, she spoke one last time.

"But it's never too late for hell."

* * *

"Need any more help?"

Shino sat on her bed next to me, holding a grey helmet on her lap. Several wires came out of the helmet, a power cord that was plugged into the wall, and three more that were connected to a laptop sitting on the floor. I had just finished helping her set up her new Nervegear system in preparation to play the full release of the new VRMMO Sword Art Online.

"Nah, I think I'm good for now. Have you gotten yours set up yet?"

I nodded. "Yeah, got up early this morning to get it set up and calibrated." I felt a slight twinge of guilt at lying to her, but it wasn't like I was able to tell her the truth.

"Pity we weren't able to play the beta," Shino continued, "we would have been able to set up our gear and accounts a lot earlier."

"Yeah." I nodded in agreement. "Not to mention the fact that the beta testers all have a big head start on us."

Shino shrugged and stood up, placing the helmet on the bed where she had been sitting, and flopped back into her computer chair..

"Well, we do have the guides that Aya wrote up for us."

I walked over and leaned on the back of the chair Shino was sitting in, looking over her shoulder at the documents she had just pulled up on her computer.

In reality, the guides were a collaborative effort between Aya and I, but that would have to remain a secret. I had participated in the beta test, but what I did could hardly be described as playing. It wasn't the most fun experience I've had, especially with how I got involved in it.

"—Kazuto?"

I shook my head to clear it. "Sorry about that, got lost in thought. What were you saying?"

Shino poked me with a smile on her face. "Come on, you better get home. You don't want to miss the release, do you?"

"Ah crap!" I exclaimed. "What time is it?"

"A little past nine."

"Phew." I sighed in relief. "I have a bit less than an hour then. Don't scare me like that!"

Shino smirked at my response. "It's not often I get to see you flustered."

I turned my head away from her slightly. "I better get going. I need to make sure everything is working fine. I assume your IGN will be Sinon?"

Sinon tilted her head slightly, the unasked question obvious on her face. She had clearly picked up on my nervousness, but thankfully was nice enough to not mention it.

After a brief pause, she nodded.

"Of course, that's my name in everything. I'll see you ingame. Kay?"

I raised my hand in farewell as I walked down the street outside of her apartment complex. I couldn't see her, but I could feel her gaze on me as I walked away. As soon as I was out of sight, I broke into a run, trying to burn away some of my frustration.

_Damn 29th. Even years after you're gone, you still find ways to mess with me like this._

The four mile run wasn't nearly enough to let me vent, but it had to do. I sure as hell wasn't going to miss the launch of SAO just because I was annoyed at my circumstances.

I put the NerveGear on my head and lay down, taking deep breaths to try to calm myself before entering the game.

"Come on Kazuto, calm down." I spoke to myself as I stared at the blank ceiling above me. "Yes he knows about the 29th, but knowing about and being affiliated with are two completely different things. Not to mention there was nothing really suspicious in the beta.

A frown flickered across my face as I remembered something. "Yeah," I murmured quietly, "that was weird, but not dangerous.

I exhaled slowly.

_Alright._

"Link Start."

A familiar tunnel-like animation was shown, accompanied by the strange feeling of weightlessness as my consciousness was projected into the virtual world. Although I had never seen them, I felt a strange feeling of déjà vu when I saw the icons confirming that my senses were all properly connected.

During the beta test, this screen had been a simple command line output that showed each individual process in real time. _Useful for a beta test, but not quite so useful for a full release. It's not like everyone would know what it means. Better to replace it with something simpler that makes more sense to the average person. _I thought absently while waiting for the game to boot up and connect.

**[Thank you for playing Sword Art Online! You have character data saved from the beta test. Would you like to restore your appearance?]**

I hung suspended in darkness. During the beta, the character creation had taken place in what was basically a widely cross-hatched blue dome. Very tech-y looking. But this time, instead of going for the high-tech look, the character creation menu—well, maybe it should be called a zone instead of a menu—had a much more mysterious, fantasy-y feel to it.

All around me was what seemed like a brilliant night sky. Foreign constellations shone through the sky like icy flames.

_Is that..?_

My gaze locked on a certain location above me. A sea of stars stood out from the rest. I knew those stars. But as hard as I tried to recall its name, it still eluded me. It was almost as if something was blocking me from remembering.

I pushed the thought aside and selected [Yes] on the system notification. Well, I say selected, but in reality it was more like _thinking toward_ the button, since I didn't have a body.

In an instant, it was as if all sensation had come back to my body. More accurately, I actually had a body now. Around me, the scenery seemed to rotate, and I found myself looking at Earth from outer space.

More blue text floated in front of my vision.

**[Thank you for participating in the Sword Art Online Closed Beta Test! To show our thanks, we're allowing you to carry one skill that you acquired during the beta over to the full release. Warning: the skill system has undergone changes since the beta, so some skills may have been changed.]**

_That's pretty unfair, isn't it? _I thought to myself as I scrolled through the list of my skills. _Hmm… the system notification said that there might be changes to the skills, but they're not listed here. I'll have to assume that I won't be told the changes until I enter the game._

A smile crossed my features as my eyes fell on a basic passive skill that had been a key to my success during the beta. I selected it without hesitation, then quickly navigated through the menus, terms of service, privacy policy, a bunch of other legal mumbo-jumbo, (of course not paying a bit of attention to any of it) and finally pressed the button that took me into the world of Aincrad.

**[Welcome to Sword Art Online! You are currently at Floor 1, Town of Beginnings]**

I waved my hand to the side, casually dismissing the login notification that had popped up in front of my face. I started to look around, but I was suddenly assailed with a splitting headache that felt as if someone was trying to shove a second brain into my skull.

_Throb._

_Throb._

"Gah… Dammit!"

I punched the ground, futilely attempting to distract myself from the feeling of my head about to burst.

"Hey, are you ok?"

My vision swam as I tried to open my menu to log out.

"Hey! Do you need help!?"

_Dammit, what on earth is happening!? Did something happen in real life?_

"Hey, dude! Are you all right!?"

As suddenly as it came, my headache disappeared. I realized I was kneeling on the ground, breathing in ragged gasps. I finally noticed the man standing next to me who had been trying to help me.

"I'm fine, just give me a moment." I waved one of my hands at him, trying to communicate that I was fine. I slowed my breathing to a normal pace, then stood up, brushing the dust off my knees.

"Phew, you scared me for a minute there. Didn't know what to do when you just collapsed. Glad you're fine though." The man awkwardly ran a hand through his vivid red hair, apparently unsure of what to say next.

I just smiled at him. "Thanks for helping me, You're better than most of the people here." The two of us glanced around at the surrounding crowd, only a few of whom were shooting curious glances toward the small scene that the two of us had made. But when they noticed us looking at them, they quickly averted their eyes and walked away.

"Geez," The red haired man murmured, "You'd think that more people would be concerned about you acting like that."

I snorted quietly in derision. "It's called the bystander effect. The bigger the crowd, the more likely someone is to think 'someone else will do it', and no one actually steps out." I grinned at him again and turned to face him. "My name's Kirito, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Ah!" he looked taken aback for a moment, having forgotten entirely about introductions. "The name's Klein, nice to meetcha."

I nodded my head slightly in response. "Hey, want to party up for a bit? I have a friend who was a beta tester and could teach us the ropes."

His eyes widened at my question. "Hell yeah man! That's awesome you know a beta tester, those guys are so lucky…"

He walked alongside me, chattering the whole way about how great Full Dive VR was, how much he wanted a girlfriend, how he loved MMORPGs, how much he wanted a girlfriend, his group of friends from another game that he was going to play with later, how much he wanted a girlfriend, and so on and so forth.

My friend's list from the beta had been wiped, and the only way to add players to it was to be face-to-face with them ingame. So that meant I had to find Aya, her brother, and Shino ingame before I could fill up my friends list.

"Kaz—Kirito, over here!"

While we were looking around, I heard a familiar voice starting to call out my real name, but quickly correct itself and call out my handle. I looked over to where the voice came from, and saw two girls standing together, the shorter of whom was jumping up and down and waving at me while calling out my name.

"Ah, are those your friends, Kirito?"

I turned and started walking away after looking at them for a few short moments.

"Nope, never seen those people before in my life. C'mon, Klein."

"Shaddup, dumbass!"

I raised my arms just in time to block a flying spin kick from the shorter of the two girls.

"Ok, Ok, I get it. Hey guys." I said with a laugh.

I waved my hand toward Klein. "This over here is Klein. He gave me a hand a bit ago and we hit it off, so I invited him to come along with us. That fine with you guys?"

"Sure," Aya remarked indifferently, "I just hope he isn't as stupid as he looks."

"Don't worry, Ay—Argo," Shino interjected, "I'm sure his avatar must be a mistake. It's impossible to look that terrible even if you try. He must have randomized appearance and ended up with horrible luck."

"Huk…" Klein stumbled back, clutching his chest like he had just been punched.

Which, I mean, he pretty much had been. I could almost see the [Critical Hit!] system message pop up over his head. Aya and Shino really don't hold back. In hindsight, I probably doomed the entire world when I introduced them to each other.

I patted Klein on the back comfortingly. "Don't take it personally, man. It's reflexive for those two at this point."

"Anyway!" I waved my hand toward Aya and Shino. "These two are my friends IRL. The short one is Argo, and the better looking one is Sinon.

I casually blocked another flying spin kick and ignored Shino going "oh stop it, you're embarrassing me." in a complete monotone.

"Argo was an information broker during the beta, so she's probably the best person in the entire game to teach us the ropes."

Klein raised his eyebrows at my words, sending Aya an interested look. "Greek mythology?" he inquired with a smile. "Fitting name for an info broker."

Aya in turn raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Hey hey heyy, you're not as stupid as you look. That's the first time anyone's recognized it."

Shino and I looked at each other nonplussed.

"So wait," Shino interrupted, "Your IGN is from Greek mythology?"

"Yep!" Aya responded happily.

"There was a famous king in Greek mythology named Argos, who was known as 'the all-seeing one'." Klein cut in. "He was a giant who was covered in a thousand eyes. So Argos—Argo, it's a fitting name for someone who specializes in information gathering."

Argo clapped her hands with a satisfied grin. "Well now that we're all introduced, how about we go learn how to play?

* * *

"None of you distributed your stat points yet, right?" Aya—no, Argo—was standing in front of us with her arms crossed while we all sat in sieza on the grass in front of her.

Sinon shot me an aggravated glance.

"Hey!" I protested quietly, "It's not my fault that Argo was so insistent on holding the lesson like this."

Her glare just deepened. "You should raise your kids better, Kirito."

"She's not my—!"

*Thwack*

There was a sharp pain between my eyebrows as Argo flicked a pebble into my forehead.

"Ow!"

"That'll teach you for not paying attention to my lessons, Kiririto."

"I think there were a few too many R's there, Argo."

She waved her hand dismissively. "Just your imagination. Anyway, as I was saying."

I had an irking feeling that something was wrong here, but against my better judgement, I pushed the thought aside and listened to Argo's lecture.

"To start off with," Argo began, "Let me explain how RPGs generally work, for those of us that might not know. Most RPGs being released now are based around what you could call the original RPG, Dungeons and Dragons. In a way, D&D set the standard for RPGs. Since then, most RPGs have had variations based on the six primary stats, as well as 'skill points' gained on level up that can be used to learn special abilities."

Argo glared at the three of us in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a drill sergeant looking at fresh recruits. "Now forget all that. SAO works in a totally different way."

We watched her swipe downward with her right hand and tap a few times in midair. After a moment, several screens popped up in midair in front of her. She swiped to the left, and one of the screens smoothly duplicated, a copy sliding in front of each of us.

The screens that floated in front of us were all copies of Argo's character profile. In the middle of the screen was what looked like a hollowed out stick figure. After a moment of reflection, I realized it strangely resembled the person depicted on most restroom signs.

I glanced at my two fellow students, but either they hadn't noticed, or they were better at controlling their amusement than I was. I quickly directed my attention back to the screen in front of me as Argo began talking again.

"SAO has three primary stats, of which only only 2 of which are able to be increased by leveling up. Those three stats are Strength [STR], Agility [AGI], and Vitality [VIT]. Strength increases attack power and weight limit, Agility increases movement speed and attack speed, and Vitality increases maximum HP and stamina. Everything can only be increased by skills."

While she was saying this, she tapped a big [**+]** icon on the left side of the stick figure's head. This opened a small window next to the character profile screen.

[Strength - 2]

[Agility - 8]

[Vitality - 0/5]

[Allocatable Attribute Points - 0]

"I already allocated my attribute points, so I have 0, but you all should have 10 points."

"Argo-sensei!" Sinon's hand shot into the air.

"Yes?" The small girl looked slightly annoyed at the interruption, but still let Sinon ask her question.

"We've already gone over this through Discord, so why are you telling us this again? We've already decided on our character builds."

The look of annoyance on Argo's face deepened.

"Ow!"

Sinon winced and cried out as a pebble struck her forehead. Where the heck was Argo getting those pebbles anyway?

Sinon rubbed her forehead as Argo started lecturing again. "Maybe _you _know, but this randy that Kii-bou brought along doesn't. If I'm going to teach you, I'm going to do it right. Professional pride, you know."

I chuckled quietly as I saw Sinon visibly deflate under Argo's overwhelming personality.

"Well then, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…" Argo paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "The only two stats you can allocate points to are [STR] and [AGI], while [VIT] can only be slowly raised by various methods. This doesn't allow for much flexibility in attribute point allocation, so that's pretty straight-forward. The only viable ratios are 4:1 or 3:2, prioritizing either [STR] or [AGI]."

Klein started to raise his hand, but Argo quickly cut him off. "Before anyone asks about imitating 'Rising of the Shield Loli', maxing out a single attribute doesn't work. All skills have a basic stat prerequisite, so you wouldn't be able to learn any skills if you focused on one stat only. Theoretically a 9:1 build would work in terms of learning skills, but it would be harder to manage since you get 5 attribute points per level."

Klein stopped with his hand half-raised, then lowered it with a heartbroken look on his face.

I reached over and patted his shoulder. "It's ok man, you couldn't be a second Maple with a face like that, anyway."

He just sniffed dramatically in response and turned his head away, not deigning to reply.

To my right, Sinon was looking at a document she had pulled up on her own menu, entirely ignoring our shenanigans.

"I think I'll run a 4:1 agility build like you, Argo."

Argo nodded, satisfied. It was clear that's what she had expected.

"Wait a minute, Sinon."

She paused, her finger hovering over the [Apply Changes] button at the bottom of the attribute menu. She glanced up at me curiously, wondering why I had stopped her.

After a brief pause, I opened my mouth.

"I think you should run a 9:1 build."

She cocked her head, not knowing why I'd say that.

I grimaced. "I don't really know how to explain it, but it just feels like that would be a good fit for you."

She hesitated for a moment, but she twitched as if an electric shock had run through her body.

"Right."

She nodded with certainty, confidently putting nine points into agility and one into strength.

"Kirito, you should—" Argo began.

"I'm going to do 3:2 agility."

Argo stopped abruptly at my words and cocked her head in confusion. "Alright... I guess if you say that works."

I nodded, but the small seed of uncertainty that had taken root earlier started to sprout into something bigger. Argo should have understood why I chose like I did.

Klein pressed a button on his menu, finalizing his attributes. "I'll be running a 4:1 strength. Gotta be strong to be a man, amirite?"

He struck a pose that I can only assume was supposed to be manly, but since he was still sitting down, it looked more like he was severely constipated.

I facepalmed and waved my free hand at Argo. "Please, please continue." _I don't want to let Klein embarrass himself anymore. Please start talking, Argo._

I couldn't tell if I was able to get my message across, but Argo began talking again.

"The [VIT] stat is more similar to skills than the other basic stats, so let me explain how skills work first." She began to tap around, opening up another window while she continued talking. "Skills are the bread and butter of the game. You can equip two skills initially, gaining more slots as you level up. You'll have five slots by level 20, but after that you'll only get one slot every 10 levels."

At this point Argo had finished opening the skill window, which abruptly cut her monologue short.

"Uhm," Klein spoke up hesitantly, "Didn't you say there were only two skill slots open from the start?" I wasn't able to count, but the menu in front of us showed far more than 2 available skill slots.

Argo's hand shook for a moment, and a slight blush appeared on her cheeks. She closed her eyes and clenched her hand to stop it from trembling.

After a moment, she spoke back up, having regained her composure. "Naturally my information is coming from the beta test, so it's to be expected that some things have been changed. I can only teach you the basics of what I learned during the beta test. I don't work for Argus, so I can't tell you everything that has been changed."

Klein and Sinon probably didn't pick up on it, but I could tell that Argo was still pissed. She did a good job of hiding it, but it wasn't for nothing that I'd known her for 10+ years. Although we joked around about her "Professional Pride" a lot, she really did take pride in the reliability of her information.

I could tell that by her minute hesitations when she talked that she wasn't immensely bothered by the fact that she was wrong about the skills, but rather the implications of the matter. If the development team of SAO would make severe changes to something as important as the skill system without a single peep, what else would they change without letting us know?

Despite the changes, Argo still continued her explanations, but this time with the disclaimer of "This is how it was in the beta, so don't expect it to be the same now."

"Like I said before, SAO doesn't have the normal 'skill point' system that most games have, where you can choose to level up a skill when your character levels up. Instead, you level up skills by repeatedly doing the action that corresponds to it."

"Now sword skills and skills are two different things, although they are very closely related. You could look at sword skills as the 'Active skills' in this game, and skills as the 'Passive skills'."

She materialized a short sword and quickly swung it in a horizontal strike from left to right. She had paused briefly at the beginning of the stroke, and when she slashed, the blade glowed with a pale blue light.

"That was a [Horizontal], one of the five basic sword skills in SAO. These five skills: [Horizontal], [Vertical], [Slant], [Reaver], and [Linear], are the only sword skills that can be used without a weapon specific skill. To get higher level sword skills, such as [Horizontal Square], you need to level up the basic [Weapons Mastery] skill. To get higher tier sword skills, such as the [Deadly Sins] for One-Handed swords, you need to level up the weapon-specific skill."

"Sensei!" Klein called out, raising his hand into the air with such speed that it made an audible _whoosh_. "What's the difference between 'higher level' and 'higher tier' skills?"

Argo nodded approvingly. "Good question. A higher level skill is a better variation of an already existing skill. For example, [Horizontal Arc] and [Horizontal Square] are higher level variations of the [Horizontal] with a combo count of two and four respectively."

"On the other hand," Argo continued, "A higher tier skill is a completely different skill that can only be used by a specific weapon. As another example, you can use [Horizontal Arc] with one-handed swords, two-handed swords, axes, and more. But skills such as the [Deadly Sins] for one-handed swords or [Tsubame Gaeshi] for katanas can only be used by that specific weapon. Trying to use a katana specific skill with a one-handed sword won't work, and vice versa."

Klein nodded, satisfied with her answer.

"Well then!" Argo quickly clapped her hands together and spoke before anyone could ask any more questions. "Time to throw you out into the field—I mean time to get some hands-on experience!"

Argo bent down, scooping a pebble up off the ground. She held it between two fingers and flicked it at a boar that was 10 meters away. There was a streak of scarlet light as the pebble left her hand, and a meaty _thwack _as it slammed into the flank of the monster.

"Kirito! Go get it."

"Waitwhat, why me!?"

I jumped in surprise as Argo ran behind me and pushed me toward the boar.

_Dammit, Argo! I know how to play the game, so shove someone else in front of a charging boar instead!_ I mentally shouted to myself.

The boar was a starter mob, the equivalent of slimes in other games, so it wasn't like I'd have any difficulty in dealing with it. It was just the principle of the matter.

Regardless, I quickly materialized my sword and raised it in front of me. I took half a breath in and held it, feeling the peculiar sensation of a hook dragging across the ground. The instant I felt it snag, my sword began to glow and the system assist took over, carrying out the dashing strike that was the [Reaver] sword skill.

The charge took me past the boar, leaving a long slash down its side. My body froze for a brief moment.

_Ugh, this is why I hate using sword skills._

As soon as I recovered from the [Post-Motion] effect, or the moment of weakness after using a sword skill, I swung my blade back at the boar in a basic attack, bottoming out its HP and causing it to shatter into a thousand fragments.

"Not bad, Kerry."

I facepalmed. "Argo, please just use my name or stick to one nickname. Stop calling me a different thing each time."

"Hmph, you're no fun." Argo pouted and turned away.

I clenched and unclenched my free hand. "That was… surprisingly realistic."

Argo nodded happily, thinking I was just keeping up the act of being new to the game, but in reality, I was starting to get deeply disturbed.

_That… felt like I was actually cutting through flesh. The level of realism is totally different than in the beta._

I shook my head, clearing away a bad memory that had begun to creep into my mind.

During the beta, when you cut through a monster or player, it almost felt as if you were cutting through a particularly tough block of tofu, and the wound it left was simply a red gash that was more of a damage marker than a wound.

But this… I killed the boar too fast for me to get a good look, but the glimpse I got of the wound as well as the tactile sensation of cutting through flesh confirmed something.

This wasn't just a simple game.

"Gah!"

I glanced over to see Klein rolling around on the ground, clutching at his crotch.

"Ow ow ow owowowwwwwwww…"

While I was contemplating, Argo had aggroed two more boars, one each for Sinon and Klein, and had started directing them in the usage of sword skills. Apparently Sinon had pulled hers off reasonably well, avoiding taking damage as well as dealing a glancing blow to the mob.

On the other hand, Klein called out the name of his sword skill as if he were in a shounen manga, miserably failed to activate it, and took a rampaging boar straight to the groin.

Argo had burst into laughter at his plight, while Sinon wasn't quite sure what to do about it.

"Oh quit down, idiot." Argo wiped a tear of amusement from her eye. "You can't feel pain in SAO."

Klein continued to groan without answering Argo.

Part of it finally clicked. I realized one of the things that felt wrong.

"Argo." I said quietly, placing my hand on her arm.

"Hm?" Fhe looked back at me, curiosity written on her face. Under normal circumstances she would have made a joke about me touching her, but she could tell from my face that something was wrong.

"Not sorry." I said in the same quiet voice, and roughly pinched her arm.

"Ow! What was that for, Kaz!—…oh."

Her shout of protest was quickly cut off as she realized the purpose of my actions.

"Pain…" Argo began.

"Is enabled." I nodded, finishing the sentence that she hadn't wanted to finish.

"Damn…" Klein recovered enough to formulate words, and stumbled to his feet. "What kind of crappy game let's you feel pain? Is there any setting to lower or disable that it?"

"Give me a minute, Argo. I'm going to log out and check something out."

She nodded with a serious look on her face. "Do you need my help?"

"Nah," I shook my head. "Keep teaching these two the ropes. I'll be back in a couple minutes."

I opened my menu and started to navigate over to where the logout button was located, but my blood seemed to freeze in my veins as I heard Klein speak.

"Huh? What's an Eccentricity?"

I reflexively threw my hand out to the side, abruptly dismissing my menu. I glanced at Argo and saw she was staring at me with the same horrified look that I knew was on my face.

"Klein!" I called out urgently. "What are you looking at?"

He looked at me curiously. "What are you getting so worked up over? It's just a weird tab in my character profile. I opened it up and it's just full of question marks."

Argo visibly paled and opened up her menu quickly. I mirrored her actions, navigating over to the tab that Klein spoke of.

When I opened it, I felt a strange feeling as if I had been stripped naked and completely exposed.

Then I saw what was written there, and it felt like my heart stopped.

**[1-?]**

**[2-?]**

**[3-54657374205375626a65637420a49443a31353a4d61746368a4172746966696369616c20526577697265a5374617475733a53756363657373]**

I didn't know what the question marks represented, although I had some idea, but I clearly remembered what that string of numbers meant.

Against my conscious will, my brain pushed forward the memory of a phone conversation I had recently.

_Hello again, Kirigaya Kazuto. I'd like to thank you again for your work during the alpha testing phase, and I would like to invite you back for the beta test._

_Heh, you really get to the point quick._

_No use in wasting either of our time with useless pleasantries. I know time is precious to both of us._

_I understand why you wanted me for the alpha test, but why do you want me back for the beta test?_

_Well, you have… let's say… A specific trait that would come in handy during the real player testing._

_What do you mean by that?_

_You know, you have something "special" that could help me a lot. Of course I will compensate you accordingly._

_What do you mean, "Special"? If you have any connection with The 29th…_

_Of course not, but I've read the reports. You should know better than anyone that I'm not just a simple game developer._

_Ahh… Heathcliff, that bastard. _

_Please don't hold it against my brother. I've known for a long time about your circumstances. I only just recently got the complete story out of Heath._

_Whatever, what's done is done. Fine, I'll help with the beta. I expect compensation both inside and outside of the game, though._

_Hahaha, greedy boy. Not that I expected anything less, you know. We can discuss compensation later. Thank you for your time._

"_Bye."_

The memory cut off as abruptly as I had ended that phone call.

"—Kirito!"

"Sorry, I sorta spaced out for a second."

The short girl placed the hand that she had been waving in front of me on her waist. "Man, sometimes you're so observant and attentive, but other times an atomic bomb could be dropped on your head and you wouldn't even notice."

"Uh, Argo, I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't notice if an atomic bomb was dropped on their head. They'd be dead before they knew what happened."

"Whatever." She waved her hand dismissively. "What's important is that the logout button is broken."

"Uh, what?" It took my brain a moment to catch up to her abrupt subject change. "Wait, you mean we can't log out?"

Sinon nodded sagely behind Argo. "As expected of Kirito, it only took him twice the time of an average human to figure out what that meant." She grinned happily and shot me a thumbs up.

I glared at her for a moment, unable to come up with a comeback to that.

"Hey! I take offense at that!"

Thankfully I was spared the need to retort by Klein interjecting indignantly.

Sinon just shot him a pure smile. "You were pretty fast too, Klein, for someone who just went through the mental trauma of unexpectedly becoming an eunuch."

"Huk…"

While Sinon was casually dismantling a certain unfortunate individual's self esteem, I had been messing around with my menu.

Thankfully the two of them were too preoccupied to pay attention to me, because I knew that I had an ominously grave expression on my face.

"There… we go." I murmured quietly to myself as I opened up a new window.

["Ahem, Argo, can you hear me?"]

The girl I was addressing glanced up toward me, her eyebrows raised

["I assume that means you can."]

She nodded, a confused expression on her face as she looked at her menu.

["The telepathy feature from the beta was disabled, but not removed. I was able to open it up for now with the permissions I somehow still have from the beta, but who knows how long that will last. Anyway, I have bad news."]

Her eyes narrowed in response, wordlessly asking the obvious question.

["The logout button isn't just broken or glitched, it's completely gone. All the code used the write the login and logout functions, including the syncing and desyncing of your senses, it's all gone. The only thing that's left is… Weird. It almost looks like someone is trying to program in two different languages at the same time. It's complete gibberish."]

Argo shook her head slowly.

Suddenly, a voice rang out across the entire first floor.

"Thank you all for playing Sword Art Online. I apologize if I inconvenience anyone, but the tutorial for the real Sword Art Online is beginning momentarily. Thank you in advance for attending."

"Agh!"

I was suddenly assailed by a splitting headache again.

Nonsensical images flashed through my head.

White and red.

Black.

Flashes of blue light.

A sky covered in blood.

As quickly as it came, the headache disappeared again.

"What the…"

I had unconsciously closed my eyes in an attempt to alleviate the pain. When I opened them, I discovered that my surroundings had completely changed.

For a single instant, I was alone in the center plaza of The Town of Beginnings. Then, blue lights started to shoot out of the ground. Teleportation effects. A few seconds later, the mass teleportation finished and I found myself in the middle of a crowd of nearly 10,000 players.

As if by magic, a small platform appeared in the sky above the crowd. A red teleportation effect shone on the platform, and a middle aged man in a lab coat appeared.

"Kayaba."

"Huh?" Klein looked at me, confused.

"That's Kayaba Akihiko. The genius who created this game."

_And the person who trapped us in here._ I mentally added, but didn't say out loud.

His lab coat looked very out of place in this fantasy world of swords. I found it somewhat odd that he used his real appearance

"Thank you all for coming today. I would like to extend a warm welcome to you, and thank you all for joining me here in my world."

* * *

**A/N **Woopwoop, another long AN! Not really too long tho (I hope). So yeah, a lot of stuff in the initial stages is being changed from BAH. No Sinon in the beta test, a different SAO "tutorial", and this time Kirito gets weird headaches! Hmm… wonder what that could be about…

Anyways thanks for reading, and yeah I have no idea when the next chapter will be released. Could be a week, could be a month or two or three. If some kind, amazing person out there would like to proofread it, then chapters might get out faster *wink wink nudge nudge* since I always get stuck on the PR/editing part.

Cya all in the next chapter! Yet again hit me up or leave a review if you have any comments/feedback!


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